


The Lost, Forgotten, and Still Not Home

by objectsinmotion



Category: Castle, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-10
Updated: 2011-07-10
Packaged: 2017-10-21 05:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/objectsinmotion/pseuds/objectsinmotion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Castle/Young Wizards crossover. One hot summer afternoon, Alexis Castle finds a book that is known to wizards as the Manual. Now she’s missing, and her father is frantic. But she’s not the only one who has disappeared …</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lost, Forgotten, and Still Not Home

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by rukbat3, who tried to save me from my love of commas.
> 
> Written for the first dai_stiho prompt fest. Prompt: A lot of missing kids go missing on Ordeals. A law enforcement team (crossover of your choice or OC) discovers a pattern.

  
The Lost, Forgotten, and Still Not Home   


The summer was hot, and it was only going to get hotter. Alexis Castle flung herself down on her bed and heaved a sigh. “Bored, bored, so bored,” she complained to the ceiling. There was no answer, and she sighed again.

After another minute of monotony Alexis pushed herself up off the bed and headed downstairs. Her father was out, helping Beckett on another case, and her gram was gone as well. “Still bored,” she said, flopping down onto the couch and picking up the remote.

“And nothing’s on,” she said, tossing the remote down again after a fruitless five minutes and going into the kitchen. Nothing looked good, and Alexis finally wandered into her dad’s office, looking at his bookshelves. She wandered down the rows, looking at the titles, some long-familiar, some by people that she’d never heard of, and she relaxed a bit. Books could almost always make things better.

Her finger caught on the edge of a book, and she looked down at it. _A Manual on Life, History, and Wizardry,_ it said, and in smaller letters, too small to really read, was the author’s name. She pulled it out, flipping it over. The cover was worn, the lettering faint, but as she ran her fingers over it, she felt the edges of an embossed image. She opened the book, flipped past the first few pages, and stopped at the Foreword.

 _Wizardry is one of the most ancient and misunderstood of arts. Its public image for centuries has been one of a mysterious pursuit, practiced in occult surroundings, and usually used at the peril of one’s soul. The modern wizard, who works with tools more advanced than bat’s blood and beings more complex than medieval demons, knows how far from the truth that image is. Wizardry, though exciting and interesting, is not a glamorous business, especially these days, when a wizard must work quietly so as not to attract undue attention._

 _For those willing to assume the Art’s responsibilities and do the work, though, wizardry has many rewards. The sight of a formerly twisted growing thing now growing straight, of a snarled motivation untangled, the satisfaction of hearing what a plant is thinking or a dog is saying, of talking to a stone or a star, is thought by most to be well worth the labor._

 _Not everyone is suited to be a wizard. Those without enough of the necessary personality traits will never see this manual for what it is. That you have found it at all says a great deal for your potential._

 _The reader is invited to examine the next few chapters and determine his/her wizardly potential in detail – to become familiar with the scope of the Art – and finally to decide whether to become a wizard._

 _Good luck!_

Alexis lowered the book and stared at it for a long moment. Her dad had lots of random books floating around, mostly for his research, but sometimes just because he saw them and they looked interesting. That had to be what this one was. It could not possibly be real.

 _But what if is?_ A little voice in the back of her head asked. Alexis looked down at it again. She curled up on the couch in the living room and opened it back up, trying to convince herself that it wasn’t real. It _couldn’t_ be. She didn’t believe herself.

The key in the lock shook her out of her concentration, and she dropped the book down beside her. Her gram entered the apartment, all flair and drama.

“Hey, Gram,” Alexis said, getting up to give her a hug.

“And how was your day?” Martha asked, setting aside her bag and fanning herself with her hand.

“Long and hot,” Alexis said, brushing her hair off her face.

“Yes, I’m afraid that’s what happens in July.” Martha wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of juice.

Alexis worried at the couch cushion for a minute, and then pushed herself up, leaving the book behind. She sat at the counter, taking a deep breath. “Gram, do you think I'm making the right choice about college, going off and leaving you and dad a year early?”

“Oh, Alexis,” her grandmother said, turning to face her full on. “Having second thoughts?”

“More like fifth thoughts,” Alexis admitted. “I mean, this is something that I want to do, but what if it doesn't work out? What if Ashley and I break up, and I did all this work for nothing?”

“And what if it does ‘work out’?” Her gram gave her a stern look. “What if this is the start of something wonderful? Think of what you could be missing if you said no.” A pause, and then a slight smile. “Of course, it would save your father's constant worrying about what would happen with you so far away.”

Alexis smiled back, but her heart wasn't in it. “Yeah,” she said softly. “That's the other thing. What about Dad? How's he going to handle me being gone?”

“The same way he handles everything else, dear,” her gram said. “Badly. But, as much as you might like to, you can’t live your life by worrying about what your father is going to do.”

“Yeah,” Alexis said, and managed a smile. “Well, I have a project I’m working on,” she said, pushing up and grabbing the manual off the sofa.

She settled cross-legged on the bed, and opened the book to the Wizard’s Oath. “This can’t be real,” she whispered. “And even if it is, I don’t have time for it.” _But how can you not?_ a voice whispered in the back of her mind. _Wizardry is saving the world. How can you turn away from that?_

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this. _In Life’s name, and for Life’s sake…_ ”

***  
The summer was hot, and it was only going to get hotter. Nita Callahan leaned back from the table where she had her Manual spread out in front of her. Kit was off with his family, her dad was at work, and Dairine was off-planet. As usual. Nita hated to say that she was bored, but she was tired of doing the same thing all day.

“I need a new smallish project,” she said aloud, paging idly through the Manual. Nothing jumped out at her, and she ended up in the back of the book, looking at the listings of wizards in the New York area. The listings blurred a little, and she paused a moment. Then a new listing appeared.

 _Castle, Alexis H._

Nita blinked at the name, and then reached over to grab a well-worn paperback off the shelf. She flipped it open and skimmed down to the dedication. Yep. Alexis Castle was the daughter of the Richard Castle. She squeaked a little.

 _What’s going on?_ Kit asked. Nita jumped.

 _Nothing,_ she said back. _Just a new wizard in the area._

 _And?_ Kit sounded amused.

 _It’s Richard Castle’s daughter,_ Nita said back, suspecting that Kit could hear the bouncing.

 _Who?_ Kit sounded genuinely confused. Nita rolled her eyes.

 _Richard Castle. Derrick Storm? Nikki Heat? Any of this ringing a bell?_

 _Not really, no,_ Kit said.

 _He’s an author,_ Nita said. _Writes mystery books. Mom liked him – got me hooked._

 _Ah._ Kit’s presence at the back of her mind vanished and Nita looked down at the book in her hands. It seemed as good a way as any to while away the afternoon. She left the kitchen and curled up on the couch, opening the book to the first page.

***  
Alexis bounded into the apartment building, long hair streaming behind her. She’d spent the day roaming around New York, looking at everything with new eyes, with a _wizard’s_ eyes. Several hours had passed in Central Park, talking to the trees. (Or, well, trying. She wasn’t _that_ good at the Speech yet, not after only a couple of weeks.)

Throwing the door to the apartment open, she found her dad had beaten her home. “Hey,” she said, crossing the room and dropping a kiss onto his head. “You’re home early. Did you catch the guy?”

“Yes, we did,” her dad said, wrapping an arm around her waist and squeezing. “Or, at least, we’ve got him under observation.” He frowned, and then looked up at her. “What have you gotten into? You’re covered with…” he rubbed his fingers together, “dirt?”

“Yeah, they’re doing construction,” Alexis said, managing to make it sound casual. And it wasn’t a lie – there was always construction going on in New York. She debated telling him the truth for a second, but she didn’t want to just blurt it out cold like that. He was already upset about her wanting to graduate early, and while she knew he’d think that wizardry was neat, she didn’t know how he’d feel about it when it applied directly to her.

“You know what I want to do for supper tonight?” her dad asked suddenly, bouncing up from his seat and heading into the kitchen.  
“No, what?” Alexis followed him, absently brushing her hair back and frowning. She needed a shower.

“Are you listening to me at all?” her dad asked, and Alexis blinked up at him.

“Uh… sorry, dad,” she said. “Look, I’ve got to take a shower. Whatever you want for supper is fine.” She hurried up the stairs before her father could answer.

“Alexis,” her father called up the stairs after her, but she pretended not to hear.

She ducked into the shower, taking the time to make sure that all of the dirt was gone. She took a deep breath as she stepped out. Her father was going to have questions. She just hoped that she could deflect them. Dinner was a bit strained, as Alexis tried to keep the conversation more on her dad's work, and less on what she'd been up to lately. Her dad, fortunately, was always enthusiastic about the end of a case, so she went to bed that night satisfied.

***  
Alexis woke at three in the morning with a start. Something was wrong. She didn't know how she knew, or even _what_ she knew. She was just filled with the knowledge that she needed to get to Grand Central Station. _You'll be met there,_ a voice whispered inside her head. Alexis shook her head, and then got up and changed into jeans and a t-shirt. Whatever she was about to face, she wasn't doing it in her jammies. She brushed back her hair and pinned it up, all the while feeling the pulse of 'hurry, hurry, hurry' under her skin.

Very quietly, she slid out of the apartment, locking the door behind her. Armed with nothing more than her Manual and the knowledge that something was just not right, Alexis headed off.

***  
When Richard Castle woke the next morning, he had nothing special planned for the day. Of course, he would meet up with Beckett, but the case was pretty much solved now. They would be bringing in the victim's brother that morning so after that he thought he would come home and talk to Alexis. Maybe figure out what was going on with her. She’d been out as often as she’d been home, unusually so. He wanted to know what was going through her head. He didn't want to push, and he knew she didn't want him to push, but maybe he needed to.

He frowned as he went through his morning routine, and then he knocked on Alexis's door as he went by. “Morning, Alexis,” he called as he headed downstairs. There was no answer, and he glanced back up at her door.

“She isn't here,” his mother said as he came into the main room.

“Oh?” He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Where is she?”

“I don't know,” his mother said. “She was out when I got up this morning.” She smiled a bit. “I'm trying this new yoga routine where you rise with the sun and then are refreshed for the rest of the day.”

“Up with the sun? You?” Castle shook his head in disbelief. “Is the world coming to an end and I wasn't made aware of it?”

“Oh, ha ha,” his mother said blandly. “Don’t leave your day job, darling.”

Castle opened his mouth to answer, but his phone rang. “Good morning, Beckett,” he said cheerily into the phone. “I thought we weren’t on until after breakfast.”

“Samuels escaped,” Beckett said without preamble. “I’m headed to the precinct now.”

Castle grabbed his jacket and waved a goodbye to his mother. “I’m on my way in,” he said.

***  
Kate Beckett had not been anticipating the phone call that had hauled her out of bed, nor had she expected the chase that finished off the afternoon. She leaned against the side of the building, panting, as Ryan read Henry Samuels his rights. Beside her, Castle flipped his phone closed with a frown.

“Problems?” she asked before she could stop herself.

They'd been trying to get back to their easy camaraderie after what happened in the cemetery, but it was tough. Still, she couldn't avoid personal subjects forever.

“It's Alexis,” he said, and she softened a little. She couldn't dismiss the part of him that was such a good dad as easily as she could the rest.

“Is she all right?” Kate asked.

Castle shrugged. “I don't know,” he said. “She was off a bit last night, and she wasn't home this morning. I haven't been able to get in touch with her all day.”

“What about the GPS on her phone?” Ryan asked, as he and Esposito came over from the black and white that was taking their perp back to the precinct.

“Last time I did that, she was mad at me for weeks,” Castle said, sounding for all the world like a little boy who had had his wrists slapped for trying to take a cookie before dinner.

“She’s probably in the middle of something and doesn’t want her dad interrupting it,” Kate suggested. Castle gave her a horrified look. “I mean, school work or something,” she clarified. “She is still trying to finish early, right? She’s probably working on some project to get ahead.”

“Or she’s been kidnapped and you just haven’t gotten the ransom call yet,” Esposito said. Castle’s face paled, and the younger man held up his hands. “Kidding. I’m kidding. She might not have her phone on her, or something.”

Castle glared at him, and flipped his phone open again. Kate listened as he left another message (“Call me, so that I know that you’re not kidnapped, please!”) and guided him over to the car.

***  
The apartment was empty when Castle let himself in later that night, and he tilted his head, listening to the silence. “Mother? Alexis?” he called, wandering into the living room. “I'm home!”

No response, and Castle felt his pulse pick up a bit. He set his bag and jacket down on the couch and ran up the stairs to Alexis's room. “Alexis?” he called, tapping on her door. It opened at his touch, and he pushed it open farther to see that the room was empty. Her backpack lay beside her desk, papers strewn across it, and he looked around, trying to find some sort of clue.

“Sweetie?” he called again, pushing open the door to the bathroom to see that it was just as he'd left it that morning. Panic tried to fill his mind, but he pushed it back down. He dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed his mother.

“Mother, have you heard from Alexis?” he asked without preamble as soon as she picked up.

“No.” The background noise increased, and Castle pushed the phone closer to his ear to hear what she was saying. “Did she not come home tonight?”

“I don't think she's been here all day,” Castle said. “Have you talked to her at all?”

“No, I haven't.” She said something muffled to somebody and then the noise level dropped. “Did she leave you a note?”

“Not unless she left one this morning,” Castle said, going into the kitchen and checking anyway.

“Not that I saw.” His mother dropped the airhead act. “Have any of her friends heard from her?”

“I don't know,” Castle said. “I haven't talked to any of them.”

“Do that. She must have just lost track of time at someone's house and forget to let us know.” His mother sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

“Right,” Castle said. “I'll call you back.” He hung up the phone and dialed Ashley's number, only to get the same response. He called Alexis's other friends, only to find that nobody had heard from her since the night before. He rubbed his face with his hand, and then called Kate.

“What is it, Castle?” she said, annoyed at what he suspected she saw as an unnecessary interruption.

“Kate, have you heard from Alexis today?” He hated to interrupt her all-too rare downtime, he really did, but this was important.

“What? No, not today. Is she still not home?”

“No,” he said, “And none of her friends have heard from her all day.”

“What about Ashley?”

“Just as much in the dark.” He took a deep breath. “Kate, I’m about three seconds from freaking the hell out here.”

“Do you still have the GPS enabled on her phone?” Beckett slipped into business mode, and Castle took a deep breath, grateful to hand over responsibility.

“Yes.” He braced the phone between his ear and shoulder and hurried over to his computer, opening it and turning on the tracking software.

“Uh,” he said as an error message popped up. “‘Unable to comply. Subject out of range?’ What the hell?” There was dead silence on the other end of the phone for a long moment.

“Castle, I’m going to make some phone calls. Why don’t you go to the Precinct? It’s probably nothing, and she’s just in a dead zone, but we’ll be able to rule out a lot of possibilities.”

Castle nodded, and then realized that Beckett couldn’t see him. “Right,” he said. He hurried out the door again, pausing only long enough to leave a note on the fridge.

***  
The room was silent when he arrived, and Beckett was standing at her desk, phone to her ear. “All right, thanks,” she said and hung up. “That was my contact in Missing Persons,” she told him. “They've got her picture up; maybe somebody's seen something. They'll also call the hospitals and morgues.” Castle felt the blood drain out of his face, and he had to sit down before he fainted. The morgue. That word should never be used in connection to his little girl.

“I don't think they'll find her there, Castle,” Beckett told him gently, sitting down on her heels in front of him. “She will turn up, Castle. I promise you that.” Castle took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.” Kate pushed herself up and crossed over to her desk. “Let's try her phone again.”

An hour of frustration later, Beckett received the last check in from her contact in MP and hung up the receiver. She shook her head at Castle's quick glance, and he slumped down into his seat, relief flooding him. At least she wasn't dead or in the hospital somewhere. He took a deep breath.

“Castle, was Alexis acting differently in the last several weeks? Like she had something going on?” Beckett took a deep breath and met his eyes. “Does she have any reason to run away?”

“Kate,” Castle said helplessly. “You've met her. She’s the last person in the world who would run away. She knows that she can come to me with anything.”

“The detectives in Missing Persons are going to ask these questions, Castle,” Beckett told him. “You need to be prepared to answer them.” Castle took a deep breath, and then nodded. “Now, everything else was going all right?”

“Yeah,” Castle trailed off. “Well, she has been acting a bit secretively for the last several weeks, but I thought that it had something to do with her going off to school in the fall. She knows that I'm not ready for it, and I think she doesn't want to upset me.”

“You think that she'd leave because of it?”

Castle gave Beckett a look. “She knows that I'll support her in whatever she wants to do. I may not want her to leave, but if she wants to graduate early and head off to school, I'm not going to stand in her way, as long as she's thought it through fully.”

Beckett nodded, and they sat in silence for a moment. “Now what do I do?” Castle asked plaintively, as the knowledge that his daughter – his little girl – was missing hit him. Hard.

“We’re going to find her,” Beckett said. “Now comes the hard part.”

***  
By the time the sun had come up, Castle’s brain hurt. His mother had come down to the Precinct as soon as he’d contacted her, and between the two of them, and the use of Alexis’s subway card, they were able to map out most of her movements over the previous several weeks.

“Hey, Castle, do you know why Alexis went down to Nassau County on two separate days last week?”

“What?” Castle twisted around to look at Ryan, whose rumpled tie and stained shirt indicated that he’d come in straight from Jenny’s place and hadn’t bothered to stop and change.

“Yeah, see here.” Ryan spread out several pages of printouts. “Last Wednesday, and it looks like she went again on Sunday.” Castle frowned, thinking back.

“She said she was working on a project,” his mother said, looking up from her own printouts. “At least, that was what she said Sunday. She was in a rush, and I’m afraid I didn’t think anything of it.”

Beckett caught his eyes. “Call her friends and ask,” she said.

Castle shook his head, but picked up the phone and began to make the rounds of calls again. Across from him, Ryan and Esposito began to do the same. Beckett tapped a pen on her desk absently.

Negative answers all the way around, and Castle closed his eyes for a moment and sent a prayer heavenward that Alexis was safe. “Okay,” Beckett said at last. “Castle, I need you and Martha to go home. Maybe she's left a message there, or she's come home and my people didn't see her. We'll continue to work at this end, and I'll contact you if I hear any news.” She met his eyes before he could protest. “I need you to get some sleep,” she said softly. “At least a couple of hours. I’ll talk to my contact in Missing Persons, make sure that they’re okay with my taking this case. Go home, get some sleep, come back fresher.”

Castle closed his mouth again, and then nodded. He escorted his mother out.

***  
Kate looked down at the information on the desk in front of her. Her contacts in Missing Persons had come through for her, but now she had to decide how much information to share with Castle. Alexis Castle wasn’t the first missing teenager in New York, nor would she be the last. But Alexis had a number of things in common with a variety of the other missing teens.

Good students, no history (for the most part) of wild behavior, stable families. Why they’d disappeared, nobody could explain. _Well, maybe somebody can,_ she thought. Nine children had gone missing from New York in the last two years, including Alexis, and five of them had made a trip out to Nassau County. Several of them had mentioned seeing the Advisories to their friends. One had mentioned, after the visit, that Tom had given her the help she’d needed on a project.

They had the suspect pool down to six names, and were gearing up for a trip down to visit them. Captain Henderson, who was currently standing in until they got a permanent captain, had approved their covering this case. Kate took a deep breath, and then let it out. Castle had stood by her when she was hunting her mother’s killer. She couldn’t lock him out, despite his personal connection.

“Yo, Beckett,” Esposito called. She twisted to face him. “Got a line on this Tom character.” He twisted his monitor around. “Thomas B. Swale. Lives with a Carl J. Romeo. One of the girls remembered Juliet talking about a Carl.”

“That’s him, then,” Kate said, feeling her blood start to pump. “Give Castle a call; we’ll pick him up on the way.” She could hear Castle’s response to Esposito’s call from across the room.

“Might want to leave him behind,” Ryan muttered as he grabbed his jacket. Kate didn’t actually disagree, but she didn’t say anything.

***  
By the time they’d reached Tom and Carl’s house, Castle had calmed down to a smolder, and Kate was less concerned about him trying to strangle Tom Swale on sight and more worried about him being far too aggressive in questioning.

They parked the car, and Beckett gripped Castle’s arm firmly. “Keep your mouth shut,” she said. Castle tried to pull away, and she gripped harder. “No, Castle, listen to me. Now is not the time to go off blazing on your own. I know that you’re worried about Alexis. So am I. But we can’t let our worry for her cloud our judgment.”

Castle met her eyes, and then gave one sharp nod. It was a gesture she’d never seen him make before, and she let his arm go. “Come on,” she said.

They knocked on the door and were welcomed with a series of barks. Castle shifted a bit beside her and she laid her hand on his elbow to calm him down. He settled just as the locks were disengaged from inside. A man, mid-forties, opened the door and smiled. “Hello. Can I help you?”

“Thomas Swale?” Kate asked, mostly for form.

“That's me,” he said.

“I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Richard Castle. We'd like to ask you some questions about our current investigation.”

The man blinked at them, a bit confused, but opened the door. “Of course,” he said. “Come in. Would you care for tea, or coffee?”

“No, thanks,” Kate said, following him in. They settled into the living room, where a sheepdog was curled up on the rug. She got to her feet and barked at them, coming around to sniff at them.

“Don't mind Annie,” Swale said. “She’s as harmless as a butterfly.” The dog looked up at her name, and then stretched back out again. “What can I help you with, Detectives?”

“On May 9, 2008, a young girl named Juliet Adams disappeared from her house in New York City. Several weeks before she disappeared, she visited here. Do you remember her?”

“Juliet? Of course,” Swale said, not at all uncomfortable with the question. “I'm a writer, and she had a question about a project she was working on. I believe she got my name from several mutual acquaintances.”

“Who?” Castle asked abruptly. Swale looked at him, eyebrow raised. “I'm a writer, too,” he said. “I might know these people.”

“Ah,” Tom said. Kate got the feeling that Castle had thrown him a bit. “I'd have to look at my notes to see if I remember who recommended me. It has been several years.”

“What about Amanda Henderson, Henry Williams, or Joe Kendra? All three visited this area three weeks before they disappeared.”

“I... am I a suspect?” Swale asked. If Kate weren't such a suspicious person, she'd say that he was genuinely shocked. She said nothing, and Swale tilted his head. He frowned, trying to think back. “Amanda Henderson - does she go by Amy? She visited here for much the same reason that Juliet did. Henry was looking for my partner, Carl, and I'm afraid that I never met Joe.”

“Quite a large group of teenagers visiting you,” Kate said. “Why is that?”

“It is a bit unusual,” Swale said. “And, to be honest, we don't have that many. We've had a large group in the last several years, I believe, but most of our visitors are adults.” He smiled, a warm, friendly smile. Kate wanted to smile back, but she didn't.

“And what about Alexis?” Castle asked, and Beckett kicked him in the ankle.

“Alexis? She came by last week, wanted a quick interview,” he said.

“What kind of interview?” Kate tried to take control of this interview.

“Writing,” he said with a shrug.

“And she couldn't come to see me about it?” Castle asked, leaning forward intently. Kate got the feeling that Swale had forgotten that the other man wasn't a cop.

“Most of the children who come to see me come for a specific reason, Mr. Castle,” he said finally. An alarm went off, and he rose, his smile a bit more strained. “And I'm afraid that I have another appointment. Please feel free to call me to schedule another interview.” He escorted them out, and Kate heard the locks engage from the other side.

“He's obviously guilty,” Castle said as soon as they got in the car. “He and his 'partner,'“ Castle snorted a little at the phrase, “are obviously kidnapping kids and taking them off to do dark, nefarious things to them! We need to get back in there, right now!”

“Castle!” Beckett twisted a bit to grab his arm. “Sit, shut up, and calm down.” He settled into his seat, fingers loosening their grip on the door handle. “Yes, I think he knows something he’s not telling us. But a) we don’t have any evidence, and b) to get that evidence, we’re going to have to go back and make sure that we haven’t missed anything. So we’re going back to the city and we’re going to look at everything again.”

***  
Nita was watching the sun crawl across her bedroom floor when Kit transported directly into her room. She squeaked, and rolled off the edge of the bed. “Kit!” she said.

“Sorry, sorry,” Kit said. “Sorry! Tom sent me to get you. There's a problem going on.”

“What's that?” Nita asked, grabbing her Manual off her desk.

“Kid's gone missing on Ordeal, and her dad's gone postal. Tom needs us to find her, if we can, and if nothing else, get a message back for her dad.”

“But we can’t interfere with Ordeals,” Nita said.

“Apparently the Powers believe that we're going to be needed,” Kit said. “So come on, grab your stuff, and let's go.” Nita nodded, flipped open her book and sent a message off to Dairine, left a note on the table for her dad, and stepped into Kit's transport circle.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“The Crossings,” Kit said. “Sker'ret has her destination from there.”

***  
Nita and Kit popped out onto the landing zone and moved out of the way as the Crossings traffic rushed by. Nita took just a scant second to take in the typical busyness of the Crossings before following Kit down to the Stationmaster's office. Sker'ret had apparently been waiting for them. He came around the edge of the desk and met them halfway. “ _Dai stihó_ , cousins,” he said.

“ _Dai,_ Sker,” Nita said, grinning at him.

“I know this is no pleasure trip, and that time is of the utmost importance,” Sker'ret said. “Here.” He set his hand down onto Kit's Manual, and Nita saw several blank pages light up with coordinates. “She's traveling fast,” Sker'ret said. “And Something or Someone is after her. I don't know if she knows about It yet.”

“Right,” Nita said, flipping open her own Manual to see the coordinates. “We'll see you on the flip side, then.”

“The seventies should be clear right now,” Sker'ret said, gesturing to the rows of gates to their left. “Go well on the journey, cousins!”

“We will,” Kit said. Nita waved and they hurried over to the gates. Nita looked through the coordinates again, frowning.

“It looks like she's heading out of this arm,” she said at last. “We need to see if we can catch up with her before then.”

“That's the last set of coordinates,” Kit said, leaning over her shoulder to tap the coordinates in question. “Sker'ret thinks she'll be there sometime in the next twenty minutes.”

“I hope so,” Nita said. “Otherwise we're going to find ourselves pulling another Dairine.”

“Great.” Kit brushed back his hair and reached out to set the coordinates. “Like that wasn't enough fun the first time.”

“Hey, it could be worse,” Nita said as the gate began the countdown. “She could _be_ Dairine.”

***  
In his misguided youth, Castle had once learned to count to one hundred in Swedish to impress a girl. (She had been impressed enough she’d let him get to second base.) He was pulling that information back out of his memory in an attempt to stay calm. _Ett, två, tre,_ he thought. _Fyra, fem, sex..._ Beside him, Beckett kept sending him concerned looks. He ignored them as much as possible.

Nobody had any new leads, and he was starting to truly panic. His mother was staying at the apartment, just in case Alexis or somebody else called, and her name and picture had been released to the public, but he was still not getting any good news.

“I think we need to go talk to Tom Swale again,” he said. Beckett turned to look at him, opening her mouth for yet another no. He lifted his hand to keep her from saying it. “Look, the man's a writer, and he writes, get this, action-adventure mysteries. We've got a lot of author friends in common, and none of them remember sending a kid to talk to him. Nobody. And they have no idea why somebody would do so.”

“So...”

“So, he knows more than he's saying, and he lied during the initial interview. Isn't that a good reason to pull him in to the station?”

“It might be, bro, if we had a viable reason to think that he was kidnapping the kids. But he's actually got an alibi for the disappearance of one of the girls,” Esposito said. He shrugged when the others turned to look at him. “MP finally came through.”

“Doesn't mean he doesn't know about it,” Castle said. He didn't know why he felt so strongly about this guy, but his BS meter was not only humming, but standing up and performing an entire song and dance routine. Beckett shared a glance with Ryan and Esposito, and then shrugged.

“Well, a second interview couldn't hurt. Ryan, you and Esposito go pick him up. We'll have another talk with him. Maybe coming here will shake him up.”

An hour later Castle watched through the glass as Beckett tried to break Swale's alibi. She'd flatly refused to allow him into the interrogation room. Swale seemed calm enough, but said very little. Kate didn't seem to have the patience to allow him to run his little game for much longer.

“I'm not sure what else I can tell you,” Swale said. “I saw - what, three of the kids before they disappeared? Along with the better part of Manhattan, I'm sure, so if seeing them before they disappeared is a crime, then we're going to need bigger jails.”

Beckett slammed her hands down on the table in front of her. “You think this is funny?” she snarled. Castle had to smile, despite the seriousness. There was the spitfire he knew and adored.

“No, I don't.” That statement sounded entirely somber. “But I didn't make those kids disappear, and continuing to ask me the same questions over and over again is not going to change that answer.”

Beckett leaned back in her chair, looking at him. Swale didn’t say anything else. The interview ended shortly thereafter. Swale paused for a just a microsecond when he saw Castle, but then he continued on down the hall. Another man met him at the elevator, stepping close and saying something. Swale glanced back as he smiled a bit and shook his head. Then they were gone.

***  
Alexis had never been so cold in her life. When she got home, she swore she was going to spend _all day_ outside, no matter what. She took a deep breath, let it out, and started the interrogation again.

***  
Nita clung to Kit as the spell spit them out onto what looked like a glacier. She slipped a bit as Kit started to lose his balance. “Careful!” she said, leaning slightly to the other side to counterbalance them. Slowly, they slid down to the shimmer of wizardry that indicated some sort of heat and air bubble. Nita took a deep breath, and then regretted it as she began coughing. That caught the attention of the girl inside the bubble, who turned and faced their way. Her eyes widened and she carefully began working her way up to them.

“Are you all right?” she asked. Nita, who had just caught her breath, nodded.

“ _Dai stihó_ , cousin,” Kit said, letting Nita go now that she was in no danger of dying.

“Oh, _dai_!” the girl said. “I'm Alexis.” She said her name in the Speech with the carefulness of someone who isn't quite sure of what she's doing, but she didn't stumble over any syllables.

“Nita,” Nita said, in English, and the girl blinked a bit.

“And I'm Kit,” her partner said. “Welcome to wizardry, cousin. How goes your Errand?”

***  
Castle sat by Alexis's window, staring out at the fast-approaching twilight. It had been four days since his daughter first went missing. _The longest four days of my life,_ he thought. A light in the distance caught his eye, and he found himself smiling just a bit. You didn't get starlight in New York, not with all of the light pollution, but as a child, Alexis had insisted that they'd be able to make a wish on whatever the first light was that they saw. _Star light, star bright,_ he thought. _I want my child home, safe and sound._

Across the room, a buzz sounded. He twisted around, trying to find it. His phone, sitting on the edge of Alexis's desk, buzzed again. He sighed, picked it up, and looked down.

He had to sit down, hard, when he saw his daughter's name flash across the screen. It took three tries for him to get it open. “Hello?” he said, clutching it hard enough that he dimly worried about breaking it. “Alexis?”

“Dad!” He closed his eyes and let the tears come at his daughter's voice.

“Alexis,” he said again. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I'm fine, Dad,” Alexis said. “I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to worry you, but I didn't know how to tell you without sounding like an insane person, and then it was too late, and now I've been missing for who knows how long, only I haven't been missing, really I haven't!”

“Alexis,” Castle said, his voice breaking a bit on his daughter’s name, but laughing at the same time. “Where are you?”

“Uh…” Silence at the other end of the line, and Castle opened his eyes as he prepared for his daughter to lie to him. Fortunately, she did it so rarely he always knew when she was about to do so.

“Look, Dad,” she said finally. “It’s going to be a long story. Can I tell you about this in person? I… it’s something that will be easier to explain if I can show you.”

“Alexis,” Castle growled, wishing he could reach through the phone and yank her to safety. Well, that and hug her and then make her explain what was going on. But he couldn’t, so he did the next best thing. “Come home. Right now.”

“Right.” His daughter sounded utterly relieved at his order. “I’ll be home soon. And I’m bringing some friends along.” The call disconnected before he could ask what friends. He closed his phone, and then opened it again, dialing Beckett, as he headed down into the living area to tell his mother at the same time.

***  
Castle was pacing in front of his door half an hour later. Martha and Beckett were seated on one of the couches. The lock clicked and everybody turned to face the door. It pushed open, and Castle felt his knees buckle when his daughter walked through, dirty, tired, but _alive_. She was followed by two younger teens.

“Daddy.” Alexis walked straight into his arms and he held her tightly, refusing to let go. He buried his face in her hair, smelling the scent that had been _Alexis_ since the day she was born. He pulled back eventually, looking down into her eyes. Her face was as wet as his own.

“Where have you been?” he asked. Alexis took a deep breath, and looked at the others in the room.

“Uh,” she said, and then twisted around to look at the other teens. The girl just gave her a shrug, and the boy glanced down at a book he was holding.

“Up to you,” he said at last, a faint Hispanic accent coloring his words.

Alexis made a face at him, and then turned to look back at Castle. “Okay,” she said. “It’s kind of a secret, though, and you might think I’m going crazy, but I’m not, I promise!”

She stepped back a couple of steps, and his mother, who had been hovering, pushed past him to pull Alexis into a tight hug. She returned it, and then pulled back again. “Okay,” she said softly. “Okay.”

She looked right into Castle’s eyes. “Dad, I’m a wizard.”

“Alexis,” Castle said.

“No, really, Dad,” Alexis said. She stepped back, and up. And then again, until she was floating a foot or so off the floor. She settled cross-legged on the air and smiled down at her dad.

“Alexis,” he said again. His daughter looked at him with clear blue eyes, and Castle dropped to a seat. “Tell me about it,” he said. Alexis dropped straight down onto the couch, pulled her legs to her chin, and started talking.

She told him about finding the book, exploring the city with new eyes, the sudden knowledge that she was needed elsewhere (“I didn't know that it would be off-planet, Dad! Honestly!”) and then her Ordeal. Castle locked his fingers together to disguise their trembling. His daughter had gone face-to-face with pure evil, essentially, and won?

Finally Alexis’s story wound down and she stared at him, wide-eyed and a little nervous. Castle took a deep breath, and then looked over at the other teens. “And you two are also wizards?” he asked. The girl nodded, fiddling a bit with her jacket as the boy stood there calmly. “Okay,” he said. “Obviously, we're going to have to come up with some sort of code for when you're headed off on some sort of mission-”

“Errantry, we call it,” the boy interrupted. Castle gave him a look, and then continued.

“Errantry, then. I'm just so glad to have you home.” He reached out to pull his daughter into his arms. Over her shoulder, Beckett caught his eye and jerked her head toward the next room.

“Castle, can I talk to you for a minute?” Beckett asked. Castle let Alexis go reluctantly, and handed her over to his mother, who tilted her head in a way that Castle read as ‘She’s definitely your daughter.’ “I can’t believe that I’m even halfway buying this story,” Beckett said as they stepped into his office. “It's worse than any of your 'theories' on our cases.” She pushed back her hair. “And I’d still think that she was lying if I hadn’t just seen… what I saw.”

“Alexis almost never lies to me,” he said. “And she’d certainly never come up with a story like that one. I have to believe her.”

“What about Tom Swale?” Beckett asked. Castle heaved a sigh mentally as she tried to switch gears on him.

“Alexis, do you know a man named Tom Swale?” he called into the living room. It wasn't his daughter who appeared in the doorway, however, but the girl whose name he still didn't know.

“I don't know if Alexis does, but we - Kit and I - do. He's a wizard, one of the local Seniors for the area. He and Carl, both. Why?” She leaned casually against the doorway, but her body was tense.

“No reason,” Beckett said, and the girl rolled her eyes, an expression Castle instantly recognized from Alexis’s face.

“Look, Alexis ran up to shower and change, and Kit and I are getting ready to leave. Alexis can get in touch with us if she needs to.” The girl turned to walk away, and Castle took a half-step forward.

“Wait!” he said. The girl turned back. “I never got your name,” he said.

“Nita Callahan,” the girl said with a grin. “It was nice meeting you, Mr. Castle. I’m a big fan. Detective Beckett.” She nodded, and grabbed her friend as they left.

Castle sat by Alexis's bed that night, watching her sleep and flipping through her Manual. After Beckett had left, Alexis had explained some of what she would be doing now. She'd done something to her book so that he could look at it, and he traced a finger down his daughter's name, written out in the Speech. She'd said it for him, and he'd shivered a bit. It was all too much.

“Dad?” she said sleepily, looking up at him from under her covers.

“Go back to sleep, sweetheart,” he said, stroking her hair. “Everything's fine.”

 **  
_Epilogue_   
**

It had taken two weeks of arguing – and a visit to Castle’s property on the Moon – before Beckett had finally really accepted Alexis’s story. Life was just starting to settle down again, and Castle shifted a bit in the front seat of his car as they drove down to see Tom.

Alexis had wanted her father to officially meet her Seniors (“so that you don’t try to _arrest_ them again, Dad”), and Castle had invited Beckett along. They pulled up to the quiet, unassuming house, and got out. Tom let them in, all broad smiles and forgiveness for how he’d been their chief suspect. He invited them to sit down in the kitchen and talked shop with Castle as Beckett and Carl discovered several mutual friends. Alexis sat smugly in the corner.

Finally, after they’d eaten and settled themselves on the back patio, Carl gave Tom a significant look. The other man nodded, and pulled a book out of thin air. It was a trick Castle had seen Alexis do, although the Senior’s Manual was quite a bit thicker than his daughter’s. Tom opened the book to a marked page, and looked solemnly up at Castle and Beckett.

“There are seventeen children and teenagers in the New York area who have gone missing in the last three years while out on Errantry. Generally this information is kept to the Seniors, but it was suggested that you might be able to help us find a way to reassure their families.”

Castle blinked a couple of times, and then settled down next to the man. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get started.”

 _  
**Fin __**  
_


End file.
